Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev is expected to debut for BC.GAME against CYBERSHOKE, in The Proving Grounds Season 3, a Tier 2 online tournament. The match is scheduled for August 10 at 15:00 BST.
BC.GAME currently sit at #70 in the VRS ranking, and will be hoping to build up their rank and progress towards those coveted invite slots for more prestigious tournaments.
s1mple at The Proving Grounds Season 3
CYBERSHOKE are ranked #52 in the VRS rankings. The roster is a Russian core featuring 31-year-old CIS Veteran Aleksandr ‘glowiing’ Matsievich and Igor ‘Forester’ Bezotecheskiy, who has attended three majors with DreamEasters, Entropiq, and most recently, AMKAL.
Despite the rankings favouring CYBERSHOKE, BC.Game are esports betting favourites owing to the recent arrivals of s1mple and Andreas ‘aNdu’ Maasing to the roster.
The match begins BC.Game’s group stage campaign in the tournament, with eight teams bypassing the group stage and being invited directly to the playoffs. These include BIG, ENCE, OG, BetBoom, and a Fnatic roster that recently added Cypher to the mix.
The match is scheduled one day before the previously touted “debut,” set for August 11 against Polish roster, Betclic Apogee, in ESL Challenger League Season 50 Europe Cup #1. Betclic Apogee are #58 in the current VRS ranking, and feature former ENCE player Paweł ‘dycha’ Dycha.
Who are BC.Game signing?
As of yet, it is not clear whether BC.Game will sign anyone else to their CS2 roster, but making any move at this stage would remove their VRS ranking, as they would lose their core. Therefore, there is an anticipation that if they do sign anyone, it would be a new core that would dramatically improve their ranking.
Spirit scout and self-described “insider,” Aleksey ‘OverDrive’ Biryukov has claimed that BC.Game are targeting a “Tier 1” core, to match the ambition of signing s1mple. Esports News UK has reached out to BC.Game for comment, but is yet to receive a reply.
Rumours have swirled regarding which specific core may be targeted, with BC.Game’s social media seemingly in on the bit, jokingly ‘confirming’ rumours regarding players which are evidently false. Rumoured rosters include B8’s Ukrainian core, as well as Virtus.pro, due to the connections between s1mple’s former NaVi roster and VP.
OverDrive also claimed, on Telegram, that s1mple teammates in the 2021 Stockholm Major victory, Ilya “‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy, was invited to the BC.Game project, but declined. The exact timing of that offer, and whether it occurred before or after the anchor joining Virtus.pro is unclear
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.